Congratulations to the Class of 2025

By Misty Cryer

With the tradition of turning the tassels, graduates of the Class of 2025 stepped boldly into the future. Their academic achievement was celebrated along with the spirit and determination that brought them to this milestone.

Valedictorians and salutatorians from across the high schools in our community were honored. As they looked ahead to new adventures, memories were shared, with mentors honored. Challenges were recognized for building character and perseverance, and inspirations that will guide their path forward were acknowledged.

Rubye Chappa, Valedictorian of the Class of 2025 of Carlsbad High School, is the daughter of Eduardo and Lisa Chappa. Rubye said she most enjoyed spending time in the band with her friends.

Rubye plans to attend Colorado School of Mines to study mechanical engineering. She said her brother, Andres Chappa, inspired her. “He is doing engineering as well and does a lot of STEM stuff. I watched him do all that stuff growing up, and I decided I wanted to be like him.”

Abbey Dugan, Salutatorian of the Class of 2025 of Carlsbad High School, is the daughter of Ken and Jeni Dugan. Abbey said, “I enjoyed high school a lot over the last four years.” She said she had a lot of fun in sports and expressed that the friends she was able to make are part of her fond memories.

“I just enjoyed being able to learn every day with good teachers who pushed me and coaches who pushed me,” said Abbey. She said she played soccer and basketball from eighth grade to her senior year and participated in track in eighth grade and her freshman and senior years.

Abbey plans to go to Hardin-Simmons University in Texas to play soccer while majoring in Education. “The great teachers that I’ve had during the years inspired me to go into education, and just my love for kids and wanting to help kids learn,” she said.

Gavin Otto, Valedictorian of the Class of 2025 of Carlsbad Early College High School, is the son of Shawn and Melissa Otto. Gavin said his most memorable times from high school are all the moments between classes, and his friends.

After high school, Gavin said he plans to attend Texas Tech University for a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.

Gavin said that Mrs. Mendez was most inspiring to him. “For the past two years, she’s been helping me with everything relating to school,” he said.

Carlos DeLeon, Salutatorian of the Class of 2025 of Carlsbad Early College High School, is the son of Juan DeLeon and Roxana Blancarte. Carlos said his most memorable time from high school was lunch. “Not because of the food, but because of what we did during lunch. Sometimes, in our backpacks, we would have chess boards; we would pull them out during lunch and play on them,” he said.

After high school, Carlos said he wants to enter the workforce to gain the experience and skills needed to design prototypes of electrical devices. As an example, he referred to green circuit boards, saying he wants to make them and make a device out of them.

Carlos said Ms. Hollis, his science teacher, was most inspirational. “One of the most important things Ms. Hollis inspired me with was the passion to learn. I think that’s something that goes under the radar for most people, but the passion to learn is incredibly important. I have been learning physics all by myself by watching YouTube videos,” he said, adding that it gives you the passion to want to learn about the world around you.

Danielle Carrasco, Valedictorian of the Class of 2025 of Carlsbad Enrichment Center, said her greatest high school memory was experiencing it with her friends and teachers.

Danielle is the daughter of Nick and Misty Carrasco. She plans to attend college in Portales to get her bachelor’s degree, to become a professor in English, and to author books. She is currently writing a book. “It is a spinoff of Greek mythology with ocean pirates for teenagers,” she said.

Danielle said her grandfather, Carl Vinka, was most inspirational to her. He was a long-term teacher of Automotive Paint and Body in Carlsbad, as well as an owner of a local paint and body shop. “Through one of my courses that I took at the college, me and him sat down and he was able to provide me what he went through when he was in high school and then went into college. He also went to Portales, which is why I want to go to Portales,” she said.

“He provided a complete detail of a woodworking object that he did, which was a grandfather clock. I wrote a whole paper on him, and then when he passed away, I was able to flip it; I was able to read that back off at his funeral,” said Danielle.

Octaviano “Elijah” Luna, Salutatorian of the Class of 2025 of Carlsbad Enrichment Center, said his fondest high school memory was making friends and meeting new people. After high school, he plans to open a Mexican American food truck.

Elijah said his grandmother, Rita Avitia, inspires him for many reasons. “Me and my brother lost our mother at a young age, and she’s been taking care of us for our whole life basically. She used to run a restaurant when I was a kid and really liked what she did,” he said.

As a message to fellow students, Elijah said, “Keep moving forward. Don’t let anything stop you.”

Cash Edginton, Valedictorian of the Class of 2025 of Jefferson Montessori Academy, is the son of Timothy and Brittney Edginton. He said he enjoyed being with his friends during high school.

After graduation, Cash plans to take lessons at a Carlsbad flight school to become a private pilot. He wants to pursue CPL (Commercial Pilot License) and ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) licenses. “I’ll slowly work up to different schools.”

Cash said he finds Albert Einstein to be inspiring. “Just because of how he looked at the world a little bit differently. He looked at it more from numbers and just from a different perspective. I learned a lot from that.”

As a message to fellow classmates, Cash said, “Work hard and keep pushing forward.”

Abigail Herndon (aka Abby), Salutatorian of the Class of 2025 of Jefferson Montessori Academy, is the daughter of Jessica Herndon. Abby said, “My favorite thing from last year was helping out with the younger grades.” She said she and a friend helped out with STEM labs and kindergarten and first-grade classes. “We helped the librarian, too.”

After high school, Abby plans to attend Southeast New Mexico College for two years to get her general credits. “Then I’m going to go to ENMU in Portales to get my speech pathology degree,” she said.

“When I was younger, my sister had speech problems. She had to get tubes put in her ears, and she had to go through speech therapy,” said Abby. “It was really cool seeing the people that were helping her out with that. They were all really cool people, and it just seems like something that I would really like to do,” she said.